Zara Read online

  “Is the baby party over?” Talon asked Zara.

  “Yep,” Zara answered. Talon stood and left the bar without saying goodbye.

  Zara smiled. That was another whipped male in her opinion. If Lindy breathed wrong, he was demanding she be taken to the healing facility.

  “Is he here yet?” Rachel asked Rage who was nuzzling her neck.

  Zara rolled her eyes. They were always doing this PDA crap. Zara hated it. So far there were three couples on board constantly touching, kissing, and pretty much making out in public. Zara was getting sick of seeing it. Freaking lovebirds! She just caught on to what Rachel asked. She grew suspicious by the strange looks Rachel was giving Rage.

  “Is who here?” Zara asked.

  Both Rage and Rachel looked at something just behind Zara. She got the strange feeling she knew who would be standing there if she turned around. She fought the impulse to do just that. Her skin tingled and she had to work to keep her breathing under control.

  “Hello, Zara,” a deep male’s voice said from behind her back.

  Zara took a sip of the beer the bartender handed her. She didn’t turn around as she answered.

  “Hello, Special Agent Roberts,” she kept her voice even.

  Rachel was a lot more welcoming than Zara had been. She turned her head slightly and watched as Rachel walked up to Trig and kissed him on the cheek. Rage growled his displeasure. Zara wanted to growl too for some weird reason. Rachel went back to Rage, then was immediately enveloped into his overprotective arms. He sniffed her to see if she was carrying the other male’s scent. Then he claimed his female’s lips in a long dragged out kiss.

  “Good to see you, Rage,” Trig addressed the large fighter.

  “Roberts.”

  Trig shook hands with Rage, but his eyes were on Zara the whole time. The woman was even more beautiful than he remembered. The silky outfit she wore was modest but it softened her looks, making her appear completely vulnerable. He could make out her hardened nipples pressing against the thin fabric. Fuck! He was instantly hard for her.

  Zara finally turned her body and head to look up into the most striking pair of blue eyes she had ever seen. As the male looked over her attire, she felt her body respond. Her nipples hardened and she felt the wetness between her legs. Damn the male for making her want him. Zara looked him over as well. No human should be that sexy.

  The human male was six feet five inches. He towered over her making her feel feminine. She wasn’t sure she liked that feeling. He had beautiful mocha colored skin that she had fantasized licking from head to toe on too many lonely nights.

  He was wearing a tight black t-shirt and blue jeans. She stared a little too long at his crotch, but she couldn’t help herself. He was fully aroused. She licked her lips in response. Damn it had been too long since she had fucked anyone. She needed to find her a nice halfsie male to take care of her needs.

  “Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Trig.” Rachel pulled on Rage’s arm making him follow behind her out of the bar.

  Leaving Zara alone with Trig. He moved closer to her and she could feel the heat coming from his body. Damn, he smelled good, too fucking good.

  “You want to go back to my suite…to talk?” Trig asked. He gave her a sexy wink.

  She turned back to face the bar. “No.” She took a swig of her beer.

  “We do need to talk, Zara,” her name rumbled from his voice. He sat down beside her and signaled to the bartender to bring him a beer as well.

  Zara looked around the bar. She found a small secluded booth in the corner as far away from the rest of the crowd they could get. “Over there.”

  Trig looked in the direction she pointed. He stood back up and followed her over to the booth. He sat down across from her. He took a couple of sips doing his best not to stare at her. She was fucking hot tonight. So different from her fighting persona. She appeared, softer and more feminine. His cock was so hard he thought it would knock against the table from underneath. He adjusted himself hoping she hadn’t noticed.

  Zara was nervous. She didn’t know why. He was just a human. But he was beautiful. His dark colored skin reminded her of dark chocolate, so sweet and delicious. She had an urge to lick him all over. What would he taste like? She shook away those disturbing thoughts.

  “Where do we start?” Zara asked, twirling the stem of the olive she had in her drink.

  “At the beginning. I need to know everything you can remember from the very beginning.”

  She looked away again. She had hoped to avoid talking about the details of her early childhood. It didn’t look like she would be able to avoid it any longer.

  He saw her hesitation. “How long ago was it that she was taken from you?”

  “Eight years ago.”

  “She was how old?”

  “Two.”

  “What about her father?”

  She spotted a fan coming her way. The bar wasn’t secluded enough. She stood, surprising Trig. “Come to my room.”

  “Wow, this is going faster than I thought it would.” Trig put his drink down and stood to follow her.

  The fan that was making his way to their booth tried to speak to Zara. “Zara! Zara! I am your biggest fan! Can I get my picture taken with you?”

  Zara stopped. The little man was directly in her path. She sighed. This part of her job was stupid, but it was in her contract. Damn stupid contract. “Fine, make it quick.”

  She turned so she was standing side by side to the man, a little closer than she liked. He only came up to the bottom of her breasts. He kept staring at her chest. His breathing increased and she felt the unpleasant warmth of his stank breath through the thin piece of material. She was about to knock his block off if he didn’t stop staring.

  He held his camera out in an attempt to take the picture himself. It was difficult for him to angle the camera to get them both in the shot because she was much taller than him. He tried a couple of takes and deleted them because either her head was cut off or he didn’t show up in the picture at all.

  “Would you mind squatting down a little so we are both in the picture?” the fan asked.

  Fed up with the whole thing, Zara grabbed the camera herself. She took hold of the little man by the back of his shirt and lifted him up in the air. The man was squirming around, but Zara ignored him taking the picture. She dropped the man to the floor and tossed him back his camera. The little man watched Zara walk away with a devoted expression on his face. Then he turned to his buddies at a nearby table. “Did ya see that? She lifted me straight up in the air like I weighed nothing!”

  “Why didn’t you just refuse to take the picture?” Trig asked, catching up with her.

  She shrugged but continued on to the elevators. “He’s part of the VIP passenger group. It’s in our contract we are obligated to take pictures and sign autographs.”

  “You must just love that.”

  She snorted. “I like my job despite the extra crap I have to do sometimes.” The elevator ride was awkward because neither of them said anything. Zara led him to her suite and motioned for him to sit down on the sofa.

  “Let me change out of this…outfit.” She disappeared into the bedroom.

  Trig took the opportunity while she was changing to look around her suite. There wasn’t a lot there, which he found to be strange. Most fighters brought pictures and things to make it feel like home because they were on the ship for a few months at a time during the GCFA circuit. Rachel told him that Zara actually lived on the ship year round. So it was odd that Zara had nothing personal of hers there to make it feel like a home. She kept it immaculate, but it didn’t look like anyone lived there.

  He did notice there was a small chest with carvings of angels and clouds on it. It was the only thing he could see, which looked remotely interesting. Currently it was sitting underneath the glass coffee table. He bent down and tried to open it but it was locked. His interest was instantly peaked.

  He looked up when the be
droom door opened. Zara walked out wearing yoga pants and a tight tank top, no bra. His eyes zeroed in on her high firm breasts and watched in rapt fascination as her nipples pebbled up and poked at the thin material she was wearing. He turned and adjusted himself. Fuck, she is hot!

  “I brought this. I thought it might help. It’s all I have really.” She sat on the sofa and placed a small box in her lap.

  Trig went over to the sofa and sat down next to her. He moved as close to her as possible. Their knees gently touched. She didn’t pull away. She didn’t really notice his closeness, too focused on the box in her lap.

  She opened up the small box no bigger than a shoebox. The lid came off and she set it down on the other side of her. It was sad that all she had of her child fit in the small shoebox.

  “I was created in a lab, and then sent to an orphanage. The orphanage fostered me out but I was put in a breeding facility in the Gamma Region when I was twelve. The human scientists didn’t realize that halfsies were not fertile until they reached a certain age, fourteen. I was forced to endure constant rapes by halfsies, full species, and the human guards. Though the full species and halfsies at the facility were given drugs to make us sexually aggressive, it was still done against our will.”

  “When I was fourteen, I got pregnant for the first time. I lost the child and four more. They were almost ready to cast me out of the program but I got pregnant again at the age of sixteen. This time, the pregnancy took. I was finally able to carry a baby to term. That's when I had Angel.”

  “According to the reports, eighty percent of the children born in the breeding facilities never lived past the age of one and a half years,” Trig said.

  She nodded her head. “That’s true. After so many failures, they thought if they allowed them to stay with their mothers for the first few years, it would ensure their survival. It worked.”

  “When did they take her from you?”

  “Eight years ago, I was almost nineteen and Angel had just turned two.”

  “Was she moved immediately to a different facility?”

  “No, they had the children in the same facility, just at a different part.”

  “You were not able to find her after the IDJ raid?”

  “No. They wouldn’t let me go back inside to look for her. They tried to restrain me. I was desperate to get to her. I couldn’t control my Beastial side and became a danger to everyone in my path. The IDJ agents had to tranquilize me.”

  “May I?” He pointed to the box. She handed it over to him reluctantly.

  “I visit as many orphanages as possible because I heard it was where the IDJ placed many of the children who had been found in that facility.

  “She’s ten now?” Trig asked pulling out a small baby brush. There was a follicle of hair still there he could get a DNA match on. Next, he pulled out a rough sketch of a little two-year-old girl.

  “Taurus sketched an image based on my description of her,” Zara explained, touching the image briefly.

  He nodded and continued to look in the box. A photo of the breeding facility with its name partially intact. The last item he pulled out was a list of names. He looked at Zara for confirmation.

  “These are the names and descriptions of the guards that I could remember. The first three worked my side of the facility and the other two worked the side where the children were taken. They only used first names around us halfsies. The last two I didn’t recall their names because I didn’t interact with them very often so I wrote down their descriptions. But the guards on my side, I would never forget their names.”

  “All three of them abused you?” Trig asked with anger in his voice. She nodded without looking at him.

  “Do you think it’s too late? It’s been eight years. Can you really find her?” She wanted to place trust in the human, however, with her past experiences with human males, it didn't come easy. But something about this one made her want to believe.

  “I sure as hell am going to try.”

  *****

  Trig managed to leave the suite without making a fool of himself. He was so damn hard for her. Shit. How was he supposed to work this case when all he wanted to work was his way into her panties. Did she even wear panties?

  His cell phone went off. “Roberts here.”

  “Baby boy, is that you?”

  “Granny, what are you doing still up? It’s late.”

  “Not on my time zone son, it is still early.”

  Trig sat on his couch and propped his feet up. “What’s happening with the family?”

  “You’re Aunt Rhonda is pregnant—again.”

  “Ugh. That is the fifth one for her. When is she going to stop?”

  “What I want to know is when you are going to start? I want to see my great grandbabies before I die.”

  Trig snorted. “You will outlive us all.”

  “You dating that female fighter I heard you talking about with your Uncle Matt?”

  “What? Of course not. I'm here to help her on a case.”

  “Uh huh. I know the sound of a man interested. Your grandpa used to talk about me like you talk about the Sara woman.”

  “Zara, not Sara. And I’m not interested in her in that way.”

  “Sure, son, you go ahead and deny it all you want. But hear me when I say, you can’t fight your destiny.”

  Chapter Two

  The next morning, Trig met with Rachel in the security room on the GCFA ship. “What’s up Rachel Starr?” he teased her by calling her by her fighting name. Rachel hated it.

  “Ugh. When will people stop calling me that?” Rachel threw a punch at Trig who easily dodged away laughing.

  “You still getting fan mail?” Trig asked, sitting down in a seat in front of a wall of security monitors. Each one showed images of different areas throughout the GCFA ship. He focused on the one centered on the training facility.

  “Yeah. Rage hates it when men write me. He tears them up even before I read them. I don’t mind that, those letters can get creepy. ‘I am your biggest fan. I know we are soul mates. Do you like smaller men?’ They all make me want to puke.” She had changed her voice to try to mimic what the fan’s voice would be.

  Trig smirked at her. “It’s a tough life being admired like that.”

  “You don’t get it. Some of these fans actually believe the shit they say. I can only imagine what Zara’s fan mail says. She gets more than all the fighters combined. Really weird.” She sounded a little miffed at that.

  He quirked an eyebrow. “Jealous?”

  She snorted. “Of course not.” She turned away and picked up the coffee one of her security people brought up to her. She was a grouch when she didn’t have a cup first thing.

  “Where are your security men?”

  “I have them doing spot checks in the stairways. We haven’t gotten all areas covered with security cameras yet. I don’t want to risk another security breach. I have a death on my hands from the last one.”

  An assassin had gotten onboard the GCFA, killed a VIP customer in his suite, and tried to kidnap and kill Taurus’s girlfriend. They were able to find the culprit in time.

  “Did the GCFA blame you?”

  “I had to give a full detailed explanation of how the whole thing happened. I was able to prove we had someone on the inside that allowed the breach to occur without anyone suspecting it. I was given the clear to fire and replace the entire security team. However, any more breaches will be cause for me to be fired. Shoot, I’d quit if anything like that happened again while I am in charge.”

  “Do you want me to spot check security with you while I’m here? I took a leave of absence to work on this case for Zara, but until we arrive at the areas we need to investigate, there’s not a lot for me to do.”

  “Well, since you’re offering, yeah. I could use your help. When my guys get back, we’ll take a walk through the ship.”

  “Sounds good.” He leaned forward to get a better view of the security monitor when Zara walked in
to the training facility. Rachel noticed this and smiled.

  “You know, it will be another hour before the guys get back. Why don’t you go ahead and inspect the training facility and I will meet you there.”

  “You sure?” he asked as he stood to leave.

  “Yeah, see you in a few.”

  *****

  Zara grunted as the trainer made them run laps. For some reason Tyk, the trainer, was making them work extra hard. Maybe he needed to get laid or something.

  “What the hell…isss Tyk’sss…problem?” Sersan asked. She was out of breath. Her newly developed spiked blond hair was falling flat against her head.

  “He needs a good fuck,” Gana declared. Alana nodded her head but didn’t say anything.

  Zara laughed. “I was just thinking the same thing.” She looked at the two new fighters. They were coming along. Roxy, the red haired Felon halfsie, was recovering fast. Isis, the Isian, was having the worst time of it. It was clear to Zara she had never had this type of training before. She really needed to work on her endurance.

  “Why are you bitches sitting on your asses?!” Tyk yelled at them.

  All the female fighters turned to glare at him. Sure they were used to having their training involve a degree of yelling, calling them too slow, or even telling them they need to move their ass. All that was one thing. But for him calling them bitches with a hate filled voice was disrespectful and uncalled for.

  Zara walked up to the shorter Plutian halfsie trainer. “What did you just call us?” She was working hard to keep it under control. Tyk could be an asshole but this was more than his usual surly self.

  “I called you all bitches. Are you deaf bitches too?” He didn’t back down. He looked at her as if she was nothing.

  Zara pulled back her fist and let it fly, knocking him in the chin. He flew backward onto his back, staying there stunned. When he tried to get up, Zara kicked him back down.

  “Your services are no longer required today,” Zara dismissed him.

  “You can’t do that!” He sat up but scooted away when she went to kick him again.